Correspondence: Hugo Gaggiotti, School of Organisation Studies, University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK. Tel: +44 0117 32 83471; Fax: +44 0117 32 82289; e-mail: Hugo.Gaggiotti@uwe.ac.uk

¹is Associate Professor at the University of the West of England, Department of Organisation Studies. He was Dean of the College of Business at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research (KIMEP), 2006-2007. He has a PhD from the University of Barcelona and a DEA from Esade Business School. He has over 16 years of research and teaching experience at the National Council of Science and Technology in European and South American countries. His field of expertise is the ideal construction of the organisations. He is interested in ethnology and in the application of narratology and discourse analysis to organisation studies.

²is Professor of Management and Marketing in the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research (KIMEP). He holds an International PhD in Business and Management from the University of South Australia, in addition to a Master of Business from the CURTIN University of Technology and a BA (Singapore). An author and student counsellor, he has executive management consulting experiences, with over 16 years of human resource development experience in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Asia Pacific Region. His field of expertise includes human resource management and development, marketing and negotiation skills and entrepreneurship.

³is Faculty on Special Appointments of Management and Marketing in the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research (KIMEP). She received the MBA degree in Marketing, Operations Management and Strategic Management from the California State University, Hayward. She also worked on consulting assignments in Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and is experienced in a broad range of industries and disciplines including marketing, operations management, strategic management and entrepreneurship.

Received 3 May 2007; Revised 3 May 2007.

Abstract

In order to attract talents and resources, cities in Kazakhstan need to factor in various marketing techniques in their administrative practices and governing philosophies. This paper explores the concept of city branding and its application to the Kazakhstani environment. The authors suggest a model, the City Brand Management (CBM), which can serve as a framework for building a city brand and for identifying strategic direction and tasks for building a brand.